Trade & FA 2024-25:

[DanSchwartzgan]

Just listened to the latest episode of Hardwood Knocks, which contained a nice, accurate rundown of the Mavs' offseason outlook. They mentioned many of the same names we've discussed, only no mention of Tobias Harris or Thybulle. Here are some highlights:

Grant, Kuzma and ESPECIALLY Advija, the only target they were willing to kick in 2031 to get, were discussed as positive big splash improvements. In each case, they felt the short term gain would be worth a high trade cost to acquire for the immediate future, but might leave Dallas with an uncomfortable and hard to work around salary structure moving forward.

All in all, good listen. It's becoming one of my go to podcasts (thanks, Dan!).

I think the only reason we’ve been discussing Harris or Thybulle is because of one media report and one somewhat cryptic “insider” report.  Both probably came out since they recorded that.  Is that the episode where they mentioned Bogdan?  I remember one of them saying good things about him too, but can’t remember how long ago that was.

Avdija is about as good as it gets in terms of contract size (less than 100% of outgoing THJ and similar money to PJ, but declining).  He plays plus D and on offense he’s a jack of many trades and while he’s kind of a master of none, he’s fairly good at almost everything (and still on a pretty good growth curve at only 23).

FWIW, Washington doesn’t have a 2025 pick.  I’d probably do the Green for 2026 part I mentioned earlier (using their TPE to absorb Green in a June trade) and add THJ, lightly protected 2025 and a lightly protected swap of 31 as a separate deal (that probably has to wait until July).  As they said on the podcast, that is a steep price, but you keep DJJ at the full NT MLE (moving him to a bench role) and you’ve swapped Green/31 pick swap (and a 24 for 25 pick swap kind of) for Avdija.  As we’ve talked through names, he’s probably number one for me.  The starting lineup just makes sense.   PJ is probably your worst starter, if not now, sometime fairly soon.

Lively, PJ, Avdija, Kyrie and Luka

Gafford, Maxi/Omax, DJJ, Hardy, Exum